Getting a perfect burr on your cabinet scraper takes practice. If you don’t have a long time to spend learning to perfect the process, Ulmia’s Burnishing Block, invented by George Ott, lets you get back to scraping quickly. The Burnishing Block works with any square scraper.
Ulmia makes the block out of steamed red beech and covers it with natural varnish. To protect the wood block they line the scraper path with a galvanized steel angular guide rail. The steel that does the burnishing is hardened to 64-66 RC and replaceable. The whole tool measures 160mm (6.3″) x 50mm (2″) x 60mm (2.3″).
You can pick one up at Peck Tool for $83 plus $11 shipping.
Burnishing Block [Ulmia]
Burnishing Block [Peck Tool]
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5 Responses to A Burr Without The Practice
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or for less than half the price you can get one with a variable burr burnisher from Lee Valley…
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=32633&cat=1,310,41070&ap=1
Or for less than a buck you could make yourself a guide out of 2by with a 15 degree angle on one end and a 10 degree on the other. Clamp it and the scraper in your vise and go.
It’s really not that hard to do by hand. This description at Stewart-MacDonald:
http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Repair_tools,_specialized/i-3416.html
appears to describe it thoroughly and well. One tip—you do need to get it sharp and square before trying to turn the burr. I always used a block as a guide and finished it on a washita stone (a medium grit natural stone). And your burnisher can be any piece of smooth steel that’s harder than the scraper.
A typical burnisher is always useful to have in the shop too.
@Joe
very true!